In the same period that the country’s largest PC maker, The PC Company, went out of business, market researcher IDC says sales were almost a third higher than a year ago.

IDC has released third-quarter figures which show more than 111,000 PCs were sold. That was down 10% on the previous three months -- a seasonal dip, says hardware analyst Sonja Olsson – but up 29.2% on the same period in 2002.

Olsson says multinational vendors, with greater economies of scale than local assemblers like The PC Company, have been using the strong New Zealand dollar to push prices down. The result is that sales volumes are up but revenue is flat or falling.

Hewlett-Packard leads the overall PC market, accounting for a third of total PC sales. HP also leads the mobile PC market from Toshiba, its traditional rival.

The rankings of the market’s also-rans change slightly between this quarter and last: Dell overtakes IBM to be second in the market overall; and Acer moves into fourth place behind IBM, with Toshiba fifth.

Olsson says price competition is creating a bonanza for buyers, with generous bundling deals also part of the picture.

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